AG Horne Announces Consent Judgment Against Tempe Transmission Shop

PHOENIX -- Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne today announced that a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge has approved a consent judgment in a consumer fraud case against Garo Enterprises, Inc., a Tempe transmission shop which conducted business under the name Transplant Plus Transmissions and its principals Gary Luther and Robert Brady. Transplant Plus Transmissions sells and installs remanufactured transmissions at 1750 E. Elliot Road, Tempe, Arizona.

“A working vehicle is a necessity for most Arizona families. We want to insure that customers get what they pay for when they replace their transmission at Transplant Plus Transmissions and every Arizona transmission shop,” Horne said.

The State alleged that Transplant Plus deceived customers by:

informing customers that the transmissions they sought were in stock, when the transmissions were not in stock;

requiring customers to provide transmission core deposits ranging from $250.00 to $750.00 and failing to return the deposits to customers;

informing customers that their transmission cores were received late or were unrebuildable when the transmission cores provided were not late or unrebuildable;

shipping transmissions to customers that were not what the customer ordered and/or were not the correct transmission for customers’ vehicles and then refusing to provide refunds or replacements;

charging customers more than the quoted or agreed upon price for parts and labor and refusing to release vehicles to owners without full payment;

causing unreasonable delays in completion of warranty work;

avoiding and ignoring customers who were seeking updates and readiness dates for their vehicles; and

offering a One Year/12,000 mile warranty that contained so many requirements, exceptions and limitations that it provided no real warranty protection to the consumer.

Under the terms of the Consent Judgment Transplant Plus can no longer accept core deposits, must deliver “in stock” transmissions within two weeks, must respond to customer complaints, and offer full refunds within 60 days. Transplant Plus will also pay the State a total of $36,000.00, with $28,355.68 in restitution to consumers and $7,644.32 in costs and attorney’s fees.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Salisbury of the Consumer Protection and Advocacy Section.